Nielsen’s Nook

Commentary

[a] Greek αὐτῷ, him.

[b] τελειόω is a word that does not translate into English well at all. It is glossed as to complete, perfect, bring to its goal, finish, accomplish; its noun forms have been rendered as perfection or maturity. The key here is to allow the semantic field of τελειόω to be larger than one English word can convey at this point. At a crescendo in the Sermon on the Mount, having recalibrated his listeners to the descriptive substance of the Ten Commandments, Jesus proclaims succinctly in Matthew 5:48, ἔσεσθε οὖν ὑμεῖς τέλειοι ὡς ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ οὐράνιος τέλειός ἐστιν. Therefore, you be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect (author’s translation). The idea in both of these passages is that those who are τέλειοι are those who are and do all for which they have been given to do. As the “entrepreneur” of salvation, Jesus, in becoming a man was the humanity that all human beings have fallen short (imperfection) of and so demonstrated himself perfect. Further, he was sent by the Father to save a people for himself. That mission was perfectly accomplished upon the Cross through all of its suffering on behalf of God’s people. As such, Jesus demonstrates himself the perfect savior, the one who has done what he set out to do.

[c] τὸν ἀρχηγὸν the founder, leader, one who begins (BAGD, 112). Conceptually, the idea of Captain, following the KJV seems to capture the aspect of leading and defending, which is certainly true of Jesus and his relation to the salvation of his people. However, this is another instance where there is not a simply corollary in English.  When the ESV translates ἀρχηγός as founder, there is an emphasis on the one who gave salvation in the first place. Entrepreneur is the best word I could creatively render for ἀρχηγός. While it is certainly not a perfect rendering, it encompasses the idea of the one who begins a work, the one who sustains that work, and the one who maintains it.

[d] i.e., humanity introduced in Hebrews 2:6, τί ἐστιν ἄνθρωπος … What is man/humanity?

[e] υἱοὺς certainly has the scope of “children” (both male and female) in its meaning. It is rendered “sons” here to make the literary connection to Hebrews 2:6 and the Son of Man who has made a people the children (υἱοι) of God.